For All The Complaining About Chinese Counterfeits... China Is A Massive Growth Market For Luxury Goods

from the aspirational dept

A few years ago, we noted a study that suggested "counterfeit" goods weren't nearly as big a "problem" as many made it out to be. That's because in a very large percentage of cases, the buyers knew they were buying a counterfeit and did so on purpose because they knew they couldn't afford the real thing. In other words, in those cases, there was no "loss" per se, because the buyer couldn't buy the original at that time. But the really interesting part of the study was the finding that a very large percentage of people who buy counterfeit goods end up buying the real product later. In other words, the counterfeit is a form of marketing.

It appears that may be happening on a large scale in Asia (and China in particular). Despite all the claims that China and other Asian companies are homes to mass counterfeiting, apparently various luxury goods brands are seeing massive uptake and demand in China and across wider Asia. Various luxury goods companies like Prada are announcing record revenue thanks to these countries that are often supposed to be pits of counterfeiting. Perhaps that original study got it right, and lots of folks who used to buy counterfeits are now itching for the real thing.

Filed Under: china, luxury goods, trademark